My visiting friend Addie and I left Perth with a beautiful 3 hour drive down south, through farm country past rolling hills covered in yellow wild flowers shining in the sun. Every now and again passing all types of cows grazing lazily, sheep and goats milling about in the mid afternoon sun. We reached the town of Margaret River (M.R) had a nice stroll down the main street and popped in to some surf shops to scope things out (the main surf break is about 15 minutes from town.) M.R has a very artsy small town feel, many boutique shops, camping type stores and surf shops, seems an odd mix but there you have it. Australia. We then proceeded about another 30 minutes to Augusta which sits on Cape Leeuwin (pronounced Lewin), there they have a stunning white lighthouse which placed against the backdrop of the deep blues of the ocean makes for amazing photographs. Cape Leeuwin is the point where the Indian Ocean rounds Australia and meets the Southern Ocean (Antarctic). I of course had to slip off my sandals and have a bit of a walk in the Southern Ocean, I can now say that of the 5 major Oceans of the world I have had my feet in 4 of them. After roaming the lighthouse grounds we found a place to camp, a nice little “caravan park” which had tent campsites right on the other side of the dune from the Southern Ocean. We photographed the sunset made food and lit a camp fire (the most stubborn camp fire I have ever started in my life, took about 1.5 hours to get and stay lit.)
The nest morning we got a 10am start on the day, which encompassed packing up the gear and driving 30 minutes north with a quick stop off in M.R for food and a brekkie (Breakfast). We were on a mission to explore one of the many caves that over time have been eroded in to the limestone coastal landscape.We went to the Nigili Cave, where while waiting for a guide to lead use in to the cave I discovered while sitting on a bench that a 3.5 to 4” spider had placed him self on my chest, just about where you would place you hand for the national anthem (American). See photo. I quickly jumped up and flung him from my person and then as any good photographer would do, I photographed him or her. Come to find out that of all the poisonous insect in Australia this was not one of them. Wildlife seemed to be the theme of the day, after the cave exploration we were driving along the coastal road to the other tip of the cape where another lighthouse stands when we noticed that the under growth of the forest and randomly sprouting in fields were clusters of Calla Lilies, thousands of them, everywhere, We decided to drive down one of the roads that leads to a look out over the ocean to take pictures of the lilies. After we grabbed a few shots we proceeded to the lookout where we saw in the ocean below a pod of 8-12 dolphins, eating and playing in the waves right below us. After about 40 minutes of watching and photographing the dolphins we moseyed on to the Naturaliste Lighthouse on Cape Naturaliste. At this lighthouse we went up to the top with a guide who had a pair of binoculars and told us if we looked out over the cape we might see whales, well we did and when it was my turn to look at the whales I saw one breach out of the water slap it’s tail and then surface while splashing it’s fins in a waving motion. I am not kidding. After trying to get some whale shots we left and found our way to the main surfing area, we camped at another park to wake up and try and surf the next day.
to be continued......
check out the flickr photos up to the left.
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